Tag Archives: DRAM

Computers

Adoption of DDR4 memory facing delays

Leave a comment

The memory market is feeling the effects of a fall in PC shipments with the subsequent stabilization of DRAM prices, which industry observers say will delay the wide adoption of the upcoming DRAM called DDR4.

The latest PCs and servers come with DDR3 SDRAM and mobile devices have just started getting a type of low-power memory called LPDDR3 (low-power DDR3). DDR4 is the successor to DDR3, and consumes 20 percent to 40 percent less power while offering double the throughput of its predecessor.

But with memory prices stabilizing after years of double-digit drops, analysts said that DDR3 DRAM will likely have a longer-than-expected life, which could delay the wide adoption of DDR4 in computers. DRAM prices have stabilized as demand for DDR3 has exceeded supply, and the number of memory makers has also dwindled. Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron dominate the DRAM market, while other memory makers have either been acquired or are focusing on the more profitable NAND flash business.

The volume shipments of PCs and servers are not enough to justify an early switch to DDR4, analysts said. Also, a lot of focus is now on the fast-growing tablet and smartphone markets, so manufacturers are shifting capacity to LPDDR3 and other forms of mobile memory and storage.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2034175/adoption-of-ddr4-memory-facing-delays.html#tk.rss_all

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Can Micron Hold On to Its Momentum?

Leave a comment

By Richard Saintvilus, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Shares of memory maker Micron have been on a tear. Upon reaching $10.27 last week, the stock has essentially doubled after bottoming out at $5.16 on Oct. 24. With the stock now only percentage points away from a 52-week high, investors want assurances that Micron has enough ammo to support the recent optimism. I don’t blame them.

Micron is known for its volatility. And it certainly doesn’t help that the commodity memory industry, which has posted weak margins due to low average selling prices, or ASPs, has been shaky at best. But with names like SanDisk , Samsung and Applied Materials, there’s also been a lot of value in this sector. And Micron certainly fits in that category. So, heading into the company’s earnings results, there was a lot to prove. And Micron delivered.

Who and what is Micron today?
Unlike previous reports, Micron’s second-quarter results left very little for investors to complain about. Revenue arrived at $2.1 billion, up 3% year over year. While not exactly a strong number, when compared to the first-quarter results, it represents a 13% sequential jump. Plus it was enough to beat Street estimates of $1.92 billion.

The company’s flash memory business consists of NOR and NAND, non-volatile storage technologies that requires no power to retain data. Both work the same way, but are different in functionality. NAND, which is used in devices like MP3 players, is able to retain more storage, whereas NOR, which is used in mobile phones, is faster. Micron arguably perfected this market. But there have been plenty of struggles.

Not only has Micron lost market share to SanDisk and Samsung, but the declining PC industry and soft ASPs left investors no choice but to bail on the stock. So, the Street rejoiced that the strong performance was largely due to its flagship chips, NAND and DRAM (dynamic random access memory, the type often found in personal computers).

Is this the same management team?
Though I’ve followed this company for several years, I can’t say that I recognize this management team anymore, which is a good thing. The deficits that once aggravated investors are slowly being addressed. For instance, in the quarter, DRAM revenue surged 24% sequentially due to a 38% increase in sales volume. This is despite a 10% drop in ASPs.

Ordinarily, the soft ASP situation, while not new, would be cause for concern. But the Street didn’t expect much price movement. Plus, it seems that Micron focused more this quarter on moving PC-related DRAM, which has much lower margin. In other words, this is where the higher sales volume, while typically good, might have actually hurt.

Impressively, however, NAND revenue shot up 8%, which was offset by continued struggles in the NOR segment, which fell 14% year over year. Management, however, made up for this weakness in profitability. Gross margin arrived at 18%, a 6% improvement sequentially and 5% better year over year. This resulted to a 76% …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why Micron Technology Is Poised to Keep Poppin'

Leave a comment

By Brian D. Pacampara, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool’s free investing community, memory chip manufacturer Micron Technology has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Micron and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Micron facts

Headquarters (founded)

Boise, Idaho (1978)

Market Cap

$10.0 billion

Industry

Semiconductors

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$8.1 billion

Management

CEO Mark Durcan (since 2012)

CFO Ronald Foster (since 2008)

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

(0.1%)

Cash/Debt

$2.2 billion / $3.7 billion

Competitors

Samsung Electronics

SanDisk

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 90% of the 1,266 members who have rated Micron believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just yesterday, one of those Fools, drewvogel, succinctly summed up the Micron bull case for our community:

Spot prices on DRAM have been increasing, but in the latest conference call [Micron] said their DRAM bit volume increased while their average selling price declined. … This is likely due to their contract prices lagging spot prices. The next quarter should include some of those spot price increases in the DRAM market. In addition to the improving DRAM conditions, the NAND prices are rising due to a shortage of chips combined with healthy demand as individuals and enterprises alike are moving to SSDs instead of replacing PCs. The price has a good bit of the Elpida acquisition baked in. Price target: $14.

If you want market-thumping returns, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Of course, despite a strong four-star rating, Micron may not be your top choice.

We’ve found another growth play we are incredibly excited about — excited enough to dub it “The Only Stock You Need to Profit from the NEW Technology Revolution.” We have compiled a special free report for investors to uncover this stock today. The report is 100% free, but it won’t be here forever, so click here to access it now.

Want to see how well (or not so well) the stocks in this series are performing? Follow the TrackPoisedTo CAPS account.

The article Why Micron Technology Is Poised to Keep Poppin’ originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Brian Pacampara has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Micron Earnings Confirm Improving Memory Market

Leave a comment

By Trefis Team, Contributor

Quick Take On account of strong growth in NAND and DRAM, Micron’s Q1 2013 revenue and gross margins increased by 13% and 6% q-o-q, respectively After a 8% decline in calendar year 2012 revenues, it looks like the memory market fundamentals are improving Micron’s DRAM revenues increased by ~25% on account of 38% higher bit sales, which were partially offset by a 10% sequential decrease in DRAM prices With a higher proportion of demand coming from alternate markets (besides PC), the average DRAM selling price can increase by a few percentage points; DRAM for PCs have lower per bit selling prices Micron generates <10% of its revenue from mobile DRAM, which can increase after Elpida’s acquisition and is one of the fastest growing market for DRAM products Micron's NAND revenue grew by 8% sequentially and can increase further with higher demand for SSDs and mobile devices though a shift to high density product mix will lower selling prices Micron Technology, one of the leading manufacturers of memory products (DRAM, NAND & NOR), witnessed an 8% decline in revenues in calender year 2012 on account of persistent weakness in the memory market. The memory market is highly cyclical in nature and is currently seeing excess supply. The slow demand on account of macro headwinds combined with intense competition further put pressure on selling prices which in turn impacted Micron’s bottom line. However, judging by Micron’s Q2 2013 earnings release on March 21, it looks like the memory market fundamentals are improving. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why the Dow's Ignoring the Naysayers Again This Morning

Leave a comment

By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

For U.S. investors, international crises tend to be short-term events that have little long-term impact. That seems to be the direction the banking crisis in Cyprus is taking: Optimism that banks and government officials will successfully resolve the immediate problems before conditions worsen has helped push stocks higher around the world. As of 10:50 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrials are up 64 points, or 0.45%, erasing most of yesterday’s losses as investors instead focus on the recent positive news on the U.S. economic front.

Among Dow stocks, General Electric is up just a few cents, but a report from The Wall Street Journal revealed an interesting story involving the company’s GE Capital division. Apparently, GE Capital has been in talks with Dell to buy the computer maker’s financial-services business. Working alongside Blackstone, GE Capital is reportedly trying to take advantage of the turmoil resulting from Dell’s attempt to go private in order to snatch up lucrative assets opportunistically. The mechanics of the deal might be difficult, but such a move could greatly boost what has been a shrinking part of GE‘s overall business.

Outside the Dow, BP rose 2.5% after announcing that it would initiate a big buyback of its stock. Having sold off its 50% interest in its TNK-BP venture to Russian oil company Rosneft, BP expects to keep about $4.5 billion of the proceeds to pay down debt, but it should be able to return the rest to shareholders over the next year to 18 months. BP will also own nearly 20% of Rosneft, giving it continuing exposure to the vast opportunities in Russia.

Finally, Micron Technology has soared 10.5% on positive earnings news. Although the company posted a loss for the quarter, highly optimistic comments about rising prices for both DRAM and NAND memory chips point to better times for Micron, and the memory maker has also cut costs to improve margins. Given the up-and-down cycles in the industry, it’ll be important for Micron to take maximum advantage of the good times while they last.

GE survived the financial crisis by scaling back its GE Capital division in favor of making strategic bets in energy. But given the speculation about Dell’s financial business, where is General Electric really headed with its business strategy? Find out in our premium research report on the conglomerate, in which our industrials analyst breaks down GE‘s multiple businesses and gives reasons to buy or sell GE today. To get started, click here now.

var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

NVIDIA's Volta GPU Launches In 2016, Delivers 1TB/s Of Memory Bandwidth

Leave a comment

By Jason Evangelho, Contributor

NVIDIA has always been a forward-thinking company, and that was never more apparent than during today’s keynote at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was visibly anxious to unveil the company’s Volta, their upcoming GPU targeted for a 2016 release. “Volta is going to solve one of the biggest challenges facing GPUs today, which is access to memory bandwidth. We never seem to have enough!” Huang told the attendees. “This is unbelievable stuff.” Unbelievable indeed. The Volta GPU will introduce stacked DRAM (dynamic random access memory). On a technical level, this is accomplished by having multiple layers of DRAM stacked atop each other on the same silica substrate, then drilling a hole through the silicon and connecting each layer. But what does this mean in layman’s terms for graphic artists, video editors, animators and gaming enthusiasts? 1 terabyte per second of memory bandwidth. 1TB/s of memory bandwidth means you could move the contents of a jam-packed Blu-ray disc through the chip in a mere 1/50th of a second. Consider that NVIDIA’s Titan GPU — its latest high-end graphics card — can handle about 288GB/s, and you can only imagine the positive implications for a wide range of people depending on graphics processing horsepower, from game developers to graphic artists. Obviously it’s too soon to expect a price tag or firm release date, but NVIDIA’s GPU roadmap looks exciting. Stay tuned for more coverage from NVIDIA’s GPU Technology conference.  …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Micron Earnings: An Early Look

Leave a comment

By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Earnings season is winding down, with most companies already having reported their quarterly results. But there are still some companies left to report, and Micron Technology is about to release its quarterly earnings report. The key to making smart investment decisions with stocks releasing their quarter reports is to anticipate how they’ll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you’ll be less likely to make an uninformed kneejerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

Micron makes memory chips, which has exposed the company to a rocky market for years as the industry has gone through severe gluts that pushed prices down sharply. Lately, though, investors have been hopeful that a turnaround is finally taking shape. Let’s take an early look at what’s been happening with Micron over the past quarter and what we’re likely to see in its quarterly report on Thursday.

Stats on Micron

Analyst EPS Estimate

($0.20)

Year-Ago EPS

($0.29)

Revenue Estimate

$1.91 billion

Change From Year-Ago Revenue

(4.7%)

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

0

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will Micron help investors remember the good times this quarter?
Over the past few months, analysts have gotten a lot more worried about Micron. They’ve nearly doubled their loss estimate for the just-ended quarter, and widened their consensus for the company’s fiscal 2013 full-year loss by nearly a quarter per share. Yet the stock has rocketed higher, rising 37% since mid-December.

One big reason for the disparity between earnings expectations and Micron’s stock-price movement is that Micron got resolution in a long-standing patent dispute with Rambus . Early this year, a court ruled that Rambus’s patents were unenforceable, finally giving Micron some closure and taking away a threat that had held the stock down.

But Micron still faces a tough environment in its core DRAM and Flash memory business. Its acquisition of Japanese memory supplier Elpida will let Micron gain access to the lucrative iPhone 5, but with questions having arisen about the smartphone’s success, any shortfall in its sales could negatively affect Micron. Moreover, an analyst firm downgraded Micron earlier this month, arguing that DRAM demand is slowing.

Still, the big opportunity for Micron comes from the broader Big Data initiative that many technology companies are focusing on. Although Micron rival SanDisk has also seen its stock rise as demand for flash memory picks up, even old-style hard-drive makers Seagate Technology and Western Digital have gotten into the game, with Seagate having introduced a third-generation solid-state hybrid drive to boost speed and keep up with the level of innovation industrywide.

In Micron’s quarterly report, watch for the company’s latest calls on the health of the memory industry and its progress in moving forward with the Elpida acquisition. How the company handles its new foray into …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Linux

John Baer: Why the NVIDIA T4 Chromebook will best Pixel

Leave a comment
Chrome OS Android

The dust is beginning to settle from the release of the Chromebook Pixel and the editorials are focusing on what this means.

It all about setting expectations. The Chromebook Pixel proudly states cloud computing is here, is ready for prime time, and is deserving of a premium device.

But the Pixel has an architectural flaw most folks recognize.

  • Do you need an Intel® Core™ i5 Dual Core Processor in order to leverage the web?
  • Do you need an Intel® HD Graphics 4000 GPU to render a 2560 x 1700 screen?
  • Do you need to spend $1,300 for a Pixel like user experience?

The answer to all of these questions is – NO! The nVidia Tegra 4 is a smart Chromebook choice and here is why. Of the currently available SoC’s it delivers on key requirements.

Screen Resolution

The big selling point of the Pixel is the screen.

  • 12.85″ display with a 3:2 aspect ratio
  • 2560 x 1700, at 239 PPI
  • 400 nit screen
  • 178° extra-wide viewing angle

Tegra 4 is capable of outputting 1080p @ 120Hz, full hardware encode/decode for video up to 2560×1440 (1440p), and a maximum output resolution of 3820×2160 (4K). This GPU prowess is evidenced by the Vizio announcement a forth coming Tegra 4 tablet which will feature the same fantastic 2560 x 1600 resolution found on the Nexus 10.

In summary it looks like nVidia has the chops to deliver the same or better display experience as the Pixel.

Computing Horsepower

Does the Tegra 4 have more computing horse power than an Intel Core i5-3427U? Of coarse not, but does it have enough to deliver a high quality user experience?

Barron’s reports the following.

At MWC, the company (nVidia) continued its product reve- lation by disclosing new details of the architecture and its capabilities (as well as limitations). Judging from this pre- liminary information, Tegra 4 rates as the highest-perform-ing mobile ARM processor—if power constraints don’t throttle the cores. This performance takes aim at Qual- comm’s newest Snapdragon processors; Nvidia offered a wide range of benchmark results that clearly showed Tegra 4 leading both the APQ8064 and (judging from our estimates) the forthcoming Snapdragon 800 […] We also estimated the performance of the Snap- dragon Series 800, assuming that it will achieve its rated 2.3GHz clock speed and applying a 10% gain to represent the improvements from the Krait 200 CPU to the Krait 400 CPU. This approach is probably optimistic, as most bench- mark scores do not improve linearly with CPU speed, although the Series 800 will also get a boost from faster DRAM. Based on these estimates, even Qualcomm’s best processor, which is due to enter production at about the same time as Tegra 4, won’t surpass Nvidia in these tests.

The Tegra 4 also completes well with current Chromebooks using the Intel Celeron 847 processor. CPU Boss rates the Tegra very favorably over the Intel 847 and the faster 847E.

Pricing

Pricing is difficult to establish …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu

Computers

Samsung appoints co-CEOs

Leave a comment
J.K. Shin Samsung CEO

Samsung Electronics has promoted the heads of its mobile and consumer electronics businesses to share leadership along with the existing boss who oversees components, as the company looks to strengthen the independence of its massive internal divisions.

J.K. Shin

The company said Friday that both J.K. Shin, head of IT & Communications, and Boo-keun Yoon, who leads consumer electronics will be promoted to “CEO,” a role they will share with existing CEO Oh-Hyun Park.

Samsung Electronics dominates in multiple consumer product categories, including mobile phones and TVs, as well as components such as NAND flash, displays, and DRAM. The South Korean giant said in a press release that the personnel moves were aimed at distinguishing its growing handset and television set businesses, which have outgrown its massive component division.

“The new leadership structure will serve to clarify and enhance independent management of the two set divisions, as well as the independent management of the set and component businesses,” the company said in the release.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Here's What Some Big-Time Quants Are Buying

Leave a comment

By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Every quarter, many money managers have to disclose what they’ve bought and sold, via “13F” filings. Their latest moves can shine a bright light on smart stock picks.

Today, let’s look at the Renaissance Technologies hedge fund company, founded by James Simons, and known for its quantitative approach to investing. Simons explained in 2007 that, “We hire physicists, mathematicians, astronomers and computer scientists and they typically know nothing about finance… We haven’t hired out of Wall Street at all.” The company’s most well-known fund is the Medallion Fund. Interestingly, most of the company’s assets belong to employees of the firm, and outside investors are generally turned away.

Why should you look at Renaissance Technologies’ moves? Well, it’s hard to find performance data for it, but in his 2009 book “Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions,” Zachary Shore noted that Renaissance’s flagship Medallion fund “has yielded an average 38% annual return since its inception in 1988. The fund has lost money only in a single year, 1989, when it dropped 4.1%.” That’s so remarkable that some have mused that it’s either a Madoff-like Ponzi scheme or a simply amazing hedge fund.

The company’s reportable stock portfolio totaled a whopping $34.3 billion  in value as of Dec. 31, 2012, with several thousand holdings. (Concentration, thy name is not Renaissance Technologies!)

Interesting developments
So what does Renaissance’s latest quarterly 13F filing tell us? Here are a few interesting details:

The biggest new holdings are General Electric and PepsiCo. Other new holdings of interest include InterOil . InterOil is an interesting beast — it drills for natural gas in Papua New Guinea. It has major expansion plans, though, including building an export facility, and it’s looking for partners to help finance its growth. Its reserves have a lot of potential, but they’re not all proven. There’s risk in this company, but Renaissance seems to think the possible rewards outweigh that.

Among holdings in which Renaissance Technologies increased its stake was Micron Technology . Micron is hoping that growth in tablets and smartphones, not to mention laptop sales, will drive demand for memory chips. Some expect the company to post strong results soon due to surging DRAM prices. But analysts at Lazard recently downgraded Micron, expecting DRAM prices to level off.

Renaissance Technologies reduced its stake in lots of companies, including Altria . The domestic tobacco giant’s future doesn’t look as rosy as its past, due to a shrinking smoker base in the U.S., more folks moving to discount cigarettes , and rising taxes and regulations. Respected analysts at Steifel Nicolaus recently rated the stock a buy, but my colleague Rich Smith thinks they’re wrong. Altria sports a dividend yield of 5.2%, and its recent results have been strong, with solid management projections.

Finally, Renaissance’s biggest closed positions included Boeing and Wells Fargo. Other closed positions of interest include Halcon Resources and Sandridge Energy . Oil and gas company Halcon has been growing …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Monday's Top Upgrades (and Downgrades)

Leave a comment

By Rich Smith, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

This series, brought to you by Yahoo! Finance, looks at which upgrades and downgrades make sense, and which ones investors should act on. Today, our headlines include upgrades for Dean Foods and Charles Schwab , but a downgrade for Micron Technology .

Bad news first
Might as well get the bad news out of the way first: The trading week got off to a poor start for Micron shareholders this morning, as Lazard Capital announced it’s downgrading the stock to neutral. A 30% surge in share price so far this year has Micron finally trading back around where it was a year ago — but no sooner has Micron evened its keel than Lazard pronounces its run… done.

Is that fair? Maybe not. But “fair” is not the point, or not to Lazard, anyway. According to the analyst, what’s key here is that “recent DRAM strength is to taper off as we enter Q2,” posing the risk of short-term earnings misses. In the longer term, “Street estimates are too bullish for FY14 and the Elpida merger.” With shares now costing somewhere “toward the high end of its historical range,” it’s time to take any profits you’ve managed to earn over the past couple of months, and wait for another pullback before buying more Micron.

So says Lazard — and I agree. GAAP-unprofitable today, selling for more than 16 times free cash flow and nearly 16 times projected 2014 earnings, the stock already costs a bit more than you should want to pay for 14% projected long-term earnings growth. Meanwhile, the stock‘s 30% return over the past two months has already given shareholders all the profits (and more) that they’d ordinarily expect to earn in a full 12-month year. Now’s the time to “declare victory and go home.”

Dean looks smart 
Better news greeted shareholders of milk magnate Dean Foods. KeyBanc Capital Markets initiated coverage of the company with a buy rating and a $21 price target this morning. As StreetInsider.com described the rating, KeyBanc thinks “DF is trading at a significant discount to its peers (3.5x EV/EBITDA compared to about 7x for its agribusiness peers),” and that’s an “unwarranted” discount “given DF‘s stable free cash flow (FCF) generation, transformation of balance sheet to a position of strength (2x levered after adjusting for DF‘s ownership stake in WWAV after adjusting for the sale compared to over 3x before), and relatively stable nature of the milk category.”

Dean’s balance sheet is only going to look better, by the way, as the company monetizes what’s left of its WhiteWave stake, raising perhaps as much as $560 million in extra cash — enough to pay off about 18% of its debt load. And yet, try as I might, I just can’t see the attraction to this stock.

Consider: Free cash flow at Dean is impressive — $212 million over the past year, versus less than $160 million in reported GAAP earnings. And yet, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Computers

Buffalo sets February launch date for 'world's fastest' external PC hard drive

Leave a comment

Buffalo Technology has set the end of this month as the launch date for its DriveStation DDR external hard disk enclosure, which uses a 1GB DRAM cache to achieve what Buffalo says is the world’s fastest transfer speed.

The company said the newest addition to its DriveStation lineup can hit speeds of over 408MB per second over its USB 3.0 connection, fast enough to copy a thousand 800KB images in 3.5 seconds from a high-end Windows 8 computer.

The drive can quickly store data in its 1GB DRAM cache before writing it more slowly to the hard disk. While some external and internal drives use a NAND flash cache to increase performance, pricier DRAM caches provide faster access. One downside, though, is that if a RAM cache loses power before the data is copied to disk, then the data is lost too.

To achieve its record speed, Buffalo also used its backup software, which it says more than doubles USB 3.0 transfer speeds on Windows machines. A Mac version increases speeds by 60 percent and can copy the thousand images in about 4.1 seconds. The company did not state the drive’s performance when copying more data than would fit in its cache in one go.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld